THERE is no denying that the high-heeled foot in Sharon Stone’s mouth at the Cannes Film Festival belongs to the actress herself. She admitted that her comments suggesting that karmic retribution may have caused the devastating earthquakes in China were blithering.In the red-carpet interview on May 22, Ms. Stone, who was about to enter a fund-raising gala for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, of which she was a host, told a journalist:
“I’m not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don’t think anyone should be unkind to anyone else. And the earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you’re not nice that bad things happen to you?”
The comments created a stir in the Chinese news media and on blogs, and Dior, which has a modeling contract with Ms. Stone for a face cream, dropped her from it advertising in China, fearing a backlash. Dior’s Shanghai office issued a statement in which Ms. Stone was quoted apologizing: “I am deeply sorry and sad about hurting Chinese people.”
Ms. Stone was at first strident and then contrite about her remarks. She insisted her comments in Cannes had been taken out of context. She also said that she resisted Dior’s efforts at damage control, and that the apology issued in her name distorted her words.
Early last week, Ms. Stone said, she received a call from Sidney Toledano, the chief executive of Dior, which hired the actress for beauty advertisements in 2005. “I talked to Sidney and I said: ‘Let’s get serious here. You guys know me very well. I’m not going to apologize. I’m certainly not going to apologize for something that isn’t real and true — not for face creams.’ ”
Ms. Stone said the interview in Cannes with her remarks about Tibet and karma came at the end of a media line of 80 to 100 television crews. She believes, but is not certain, the interviewer was from a Hong Kong television station. The call letters on the microphone are blurred out on Internet sites showing the video.
“Now it’s turned into a three-ring circus,” said Ms. Stone.
Like many European luxury brands, Dior, which reported double-digit growth in China for the first three months of the year, looks to emerging consumer markets as a major source of revenue, and it is eager to avoid causing offense. In April, a pro-Tibetan demonstration during the Olympic torch relay in Paris brought calls in China to boycott the French retailer Carrefour.
Ms. Stone said that she told Mr. Toledano of Dior that since she didn’t believe she had done anything wrong, why didn’t Dior let her clarify her remarks with a statement? That statement, which Cindi Berger, a publicist for Ms. Stone, sent to The New York Times in an e-mail message, said, in part: “I am deeply saddened that a 10-second poorly edited film clip has besmirched my reputation of over 20 years of charitable services on behalf of international charities. My intention is to be of service to the Chinese people.” She expressed sympathy for the earthquake victims and said she regretted if her comments in Cannes were misunderstood.
To many bloggers, the apology made Ms. Stone seem at once groveling and insincere — another actress doing what she has to save a movie career.
“It makes it appear that I’m in agreement that I did a bad thing,” Ms. Stone said, adding that she believes the statement was not a poor translation but rather rewritten. It is unclear who at Dior provided the statement to the Chinese news media.
For actresses like Ms. Stone, whose image sells products, there is little room for fumbling.
